Monthly Archive

I’ve done a lot of reading up and I’ve made my decision. I’m not getting the H1N1 vaccine.

There’s been much back and forth about it, but in the end, for me, I’ve made what I think is the right decision.

I want to get pregnant, and there’s just not enough information.

I have a pregnant friend who’s getting it, a friend who’s breastfeeding who’s not. My mom’s doctor told her neither she nor her children will be vaccinated.

Why? Because we don’t know what it’s going to do. What are the side affects? If I get the flu shot, then get pregnant, will my baby be safe? Will there be potential birth defects caused by this very new vaccine? If I get it tomorrow, will it prevent me from becoming pregnant?

But then there’s the other side…the most deadly flu virus our country has seen in decades. If I become pregnant soon and don’t get it, am I at a higher risk of miscarriage? Am I at a higher risk of miscarriage anyway FROM the vaccine?

“The doubts about the H1N1 vaccine arise from the perception that it’s being rushed into production and foisted on the public without being tested sufficiently, that it might not be effective, and that it might not even be necessary since the virus has so far proved to be less severe than anticipated.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Canada has decided to use an adjuvant or immunity-boosting chemical in the vaccine, while the United States has opted for one composed wholly of dead fragments of the H1N1 virus.”

The decision is definitely a personal one, but my decision is to not get the vaccine. If I become pregnant this flu season, I will have a long and detailed chat with my doctor about it. But I think my decision will probably stay the same.

What about you? Are you getting the vaccine? If you’re pregnant, how did you make your decision? If you’re not pregnant, are you still wrestling like the decision, just like me?

As much as I enjoy having blonde hair, the problem I face is that which I like to call the Dark Headband. Observe:

My roots grow in quickly and I’m left with a dark stripe around my head, usually a few weeks before my next salon appointment. And since salon appointments aren’t cheap, I have to wait the full six weeks before I go back.

But, with the onset of fall, I thought I’d give myself (and my bank account) a break, and change it up a bit.

My mom left yesterday after a really wonderful visit. It’s rare that my family makes the trek towards our direction (I usually go there), so the visit was extra special to me.

We ate. (Lobster Macaroni and Cheese.)

We shopped. (Cute fall boots.)

We sat on the couch and had mother/daughter bonding time that I so miss when I don’t see her.

It’s nice to have my parents visit now — in our own home, not some rented college beach house. Where I can make them our famous enchiladas for dinner and show them our little beach town. Where I can show off my newly painted bathroom and feel pride when I get the parental approval. Because no matter how old we get, aren’t we always looking for it?

Yeah, I promised you pictures on Tuesday. And I would have taken them too, except the towel racks weren’t hung and I was still maniacally touching up the walls and oh yeah, there were no doors.

If you’re looking for a way to become super close to your significant other, I suggest taking the door off your bathroom. It’s a whole new form of closeness, my friends.

I consider the room a work in progress, because there’s still spots along the trim that need some touch ups and we found some BLUE OMIGOD BLUE on the side of the sink that needs to be scraped off. And I’d probably still be lazy about these photos had my friend D not emailed me last night with a “you suck. post photos.” message.

Before: The Blue Cave OMIGOD BLUE (blurry photos not on purpose, nor indicative of my usual photo-taking skills. I blame it on the blue rage.)

(For the record, I chose neither of those paint samples.)

Oh hello, hotness.

My own personal blue lagoon.

And remember these? The all mighty and powerful sconces from hell? Underneath them was sailboat wallpaper. And not just any sailboat wallpaper. Big, tall Mayflower-type sailboats.

And compasses. YES.

After: What’s this? A modern bathroom???

Blue? Where are you, boy?

Yes, a little blue on the socket. It’s on the list. But oh! No medicine cabinet! And the closet in the reflection that was BLUE OMIGOD BLUE? Not blue! (Faucet to be changed this week. New faucet currently sitting in box on dining room table.)

Yes, some touch ups needed on the ceiling line, but people. White ceiling. New sconces. No blue.

Oh, hi. What day is it? I’ve totally lost track, because for the last two days I’ve been in the bathroom. Painting. Our bathroom really isn’t that big, but the previous owners were huge, massive stupid heads and painted every. single. surface. blue. BRIGHT blue. Every surface. The walls. The back of the door. The trim. The window. The window slats omigod. Sixteen hours, give or take a few minutes. Because oh yeah, the only surface they didn’t paint blue? The ceiling. Which is cedar planks. Huh.

Our house is just over 100 years old, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it. It’s been renovated over the years, but if you look closely you’ll notice that some parts of the floor or a wall aren’t quiiiite straight. Charm, right? Meh. Our next house will be much younger. Michael bought this house four years ago. I moved in a year later and the extent of our renovations have been painting over dragonfly stencils in the guest bedroom. Three years ago. We both detest painting so, well, we just lived with the BLUE bathroom and the YELLOW master bedroom (oh yes, yellow on all surfaces. I told you the previous owners were idiots. That’s the next room to be done).

Until one day, I just couldn’t live with it anymore. And I thought, how hard could it be, the painting? It’s just a small bathroom. (Que manic laughing). Two days later, I’ll tell you. It’s hard. I’ll recap that whole ordeal tomorrow when the painting tape is off the walls and I can take a picture of the new NOT BLUE bathroom.

But in the meantime, I’ll continue to prove how awesome the last owners were with a little show and tell. Of light fixtures.

Exhibit A: The dining room chandelier.

Before:

Oh! How lovely! Brassfake candles! And only half of them worked! And the rest would flicker intermittently making you think a ghost was playing with the switch. And it looks like a spider, which is fitting, since most of the time the thing sat around collecting spiderwebs.

What? You’ve never seen a wooden lantern chandelier before? Aren’t they all the rage? I don’t even know where you would even buy something like this, let alone why someone would put it in their house. Although, the combination of wood, glass, copper AND chrome is quite amazing.

After:

We had very few requirements for this seldom used light fixture. One, blend in. (Check.) Two, not look like a boob with a giant nipple. (Check. Now it’s a boob without a nipple.)

Exhibit C: Bathroom sconces.

Before:

This one looked like a boob, actually. A long, oval boob with flower tentacles. In brass. I don’t like brass. Also, look! See the cedar ceiling? And the BLUE wall? And that most awesome medicine cabinet that no longer stayed closed so was screwed shut? Gone! GONE, GONE, GONE ALL GONE!!! (Tomorrow, I’ll show you what I found under the lamp. Oh, yes.)

After:

Um, apparently I didn’t take an after picture. But I will! For tomorrow! When I show you the new NOT BLUE bathroom!

Despite having baby fever, the inner bride in me hasn’t died. I still notice new engagement rings and squeal with soon-to-be brides. (As a matter of fact, the other day at Starbucks I noticed one of the girls who worked there had something sparkly on her finger. I think I surprised her when I asked, “Is that new? Congratulations!”, but she was pretty darn excited to show it to me.)

So I’m so excited to be attending the wedding tomorrow of the very first friend I made in college — my freshman roommate, Katie. We lived together all through college and she’s one of the happiest, quirkiest and funniest girls I know. I am so happy for her and cannot wait to share in her day.

When I wanted to get engaged, everywhere I looked there was a woman with a rock on her finger. I spent a lot of time watching A Wedding Story, Whose Wedding is it Anyway and Say Yes to the Dress.

After I got married, everywhere I looked there was a couple moving into a new home that seemed bigger and brighter than ours. I spent a lot of time watching House Hunters, Moving Up, Design on a Dime and most shows on HGTV.

Now that I want a baby, everywhere I look women seem to be carrying an infant, chasing a toddler, posting pregnancy announcements on their blog, calling me with the good news of baby #3 or absentmindedly and adorably rubbing their growing belly. I watch a lot of A Baby Story, Birth Day and Bringing Home Baby.

I was fortunate to have lunch today with one of my most favorite people. (Incidentally, Mike wrote his 300th post today on, in my opinion, a really fabulous topic. Go send him some blog love.)

I got there before him, so I went about picking out my lunch, which included a rather large, quite delicious looking peach. I brought my lunch to the register and was fishing around in my wallet when I noticed that the peach had rung up at $2.08.

“That peach is two dollars?!” I asked the cashier in shock.

She turned to me with a cool eye and simply muttered, “Yup”.

Oh.

Well, she had already rung it up and either way I wanted the peach, but still. Two dollars? For a peach? This seemed like a lot.

By this time, Mike was waiting in line to pay for his lunch, and I marched up to him, peach in hand.

“I just paid two dollars for a peach. What are your thoughts on that,” I asked him.

He stared at me for a second before responding. “That better be the best damn peach you ever had”.

Agreed.

As we were discussing the peach, a man in line with Mike joined in on the conversation. He was jovial, and urged me to go back and see what the listed price of the peach was. I left the two of them talking, assuming they knew each other, and headed back to the fruit department.

Four dollars a pound. For a peach! I nearly fell head first into the kiwis.

I headed back to the table and Mike walked over to join me, followed by the man. Who, um, Mike did NOT know, actually.

I told them both the price and the man repeated Mike’s sentiment that it better be a really, really good peach. And then he said “May I?”, and reached down. And squeezed my peach.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually let men I just meet squeeze my peaches.

We need to talk. See, we used to be just friends. I’d stop by once and awhile. We’d chat, I’d look at pictures from your last vacation, we’d play some Scrabble and I’d be on my way.

And then I lost my job.

And suddenly I had all this time to hang out with you and, well, you didn’t say no. We went from hanging out once a day to multiple times a day, and then I got my new phone and suddenly I could access you no matter where I was. I became That Girl, Facebook. I became a little obsessed.

What did you have to say right this minute? Were you thinking of me, just like I was thinking of you?

You’re just too damn sexy, Facebook. It’s not just me who thinks so. There’s lots of us stalking you daily. Most of my friends do. My sister does.

Facebook, my mom hangs out with you too.

I think we need a little break. Maybe just a few visits a day. Like five. Tops. Just enough so I can see what’s up in your world and whether or not you’ve posted any new photos. I really like the photos, Facebook.

Oh, just one thing. I really, REALLY hate when you talk about your trips to Farm Town. Maybe you could ease up on that a little.

1. There is now a “designer” Snuggie. It comes in leopard print. I knew this even before I saw the commercial, because a woman got into the same elevator as me in Kansas City and she had one. And was excited about it. The Snuggie. Really.

2. My sister-in-law and I went into a jewelry store last weekend and starting oohing and ahhing over a very.big.ring. It was gorgeous, but we weren’t being serious about it. We just wanted to try it on. And try it on we did. All 7 carats, $301,000 of it. Yes, that was three hundred and one THOUSAND dollars. I wore a house on my finger. I wish I had taken a picture to show you.

3. Speaking of houses, I was checking out real estate listings in Kanas City for the hell of it, and found a 5 bedroom, 5 bath, granite kitchen, finished basement home for $245k. Our house is smaller than that, has no granite and does not have a finished basement. And let me just tell you, it did not cost $245k. Not even close. Perhaps we’re living in the wrong part of the country?

4. Pill-free update: so far, so good. The only real change I noticed were menstrual headaches. I never had those before and they are not fun, but I suppose nothing some Advil can’t fix.

5. I’m the tannest I’ve ever naturally been in my entire life. Apparently, when you have time to spend consecutive days on the beach and the boat, this is what happens. Of course now, it’s getting chilly again. Bye, bye, color.

6. I’m experiencing a major blog blockage right now, hence the Randomness. I’m really frustrated by it, actually. Is it time to hang up my blogging hat? Have you as bloggers experienced this? How did you get through it? Did you push through, or pull the plug?